Soi Ram Buttri

The structure that gave Soi Ram Buttri its name has disappeared. In the early twentieth century, a canal ran beside Wat Chana Songkhram. It curved around the monastery grounds, crossed what is now Chakrabongse Road, and continued parallel to the future Khao San. A bridge was needed here to cross the water.

Princess Pao Suriyakul decided to build it. She was the daughter of Prince Suriya, who bore the title Prince Rama Isares. Her father died when Pao was three years old. More than half a century later, she decided to leave him a memorial that city residents could use every day.

Pao gave her own money and gold jewelry, then asked King Chulalongkorn to assign construction to the city's sanitary department. The donations were valued at four thousand five hundred ninety-five baht and forty-two satang. They paid for a brick bridge set in cement mortar, with iron beams and railings.

On August thirteenth, nineteen ten, the king came for the opening. Pao herself cut the ribbon and removed the covering from the inscription. Chulalongkorn named the crossing Ram Buttri Bridge—literally, “the bridge of Rama's daughter.” The word referred neither to the heroine of the epic nor to one of the Siamese kings, but to the woman who built the bridge in memory of her father, Prince Rama Isares.

Later, the canal was filled in, the bridge was dismantled, and part of the former channel became a street. Entrepreneurs placed hotels, restaurants, bars, and massage parlors along it; the road's curve around the monastery follows the old water boundary. At the intersection with Chakrabongse Road, there is no longer any water or brick crossing. Of Pao's donated money and gold jewelry, only the name on the street signs remains: Ram Buttri—the daughter of Rama.